A City Veiled in Shadow
by Tif S
Summary: Major AU:The Waverider receives a distress call from Central City in the year 2036. This is not the Central City they knew. They must deal with the disappearance of the city's hero, the rise of a new villain with a familiar face, and a broken family all while trying to figure out what the hell happened to change the future so drastically. Ensemble Fic!
1. Close to the Vest

_**A/N: Hello, here with a new story, my first foray into writing for Legends of Tomorrow and of course crossing it over with the Flash, because it's fun. In terms of this fic, some details regarding canon details. This is a pretty major AU, but with regards to Legends, season one events are canon with the exception of the team crossing paths with Rex Tyler and hearing about the JSA. Regarding the Flash side of events, I've mixed and matched details since the story is dealing with a possible future. Anyway, I neither own Legends of Tomorrow nor the Flash. Just my plot. I'm just having a bit of fun. I'll put them back how I found em. Hope you enjoy.**_

* * *

 **Chapter One: Close to the Vest**

 _Breaking news: Reporting live from Central City Police Department, the investigation is still underway regarding the whereabouts of Central City's famed hero the Flash. The Scarlet Speedster vanished several weeks ago. I'm here with Detective Joe West of CCPD. "Detective, can you tell us anything regarding the investigation?"_

" _We can't share any specifics regarding the investigation at this time. The Flash is as much a citizen of this city as anyone, and we will do all we can. That's all I can say." You heard it here first folks. Reporting for KSFZ, I'm Linda Park._

Rip Hunter stared at the screen. "Gideon?"

"Yes Captain?" The AI's voice carried.

"When was this filmed?"

"That was Linda Park's final news report Captain: approximate date: May 19th 2036 on the 6 o'clock evening news."

"Yes," The captain frowned. "And when was Linda Park's date of death?"

"Records indicate that Miss Park died just twelve hours later under mysterious circumstances in her home."

Rip ran a hand down his face as he sat down with a satisfying kerplunk in the nearby chair. He had thought, well what had he thought? It was so difficult to sort out what he had been thinking. When he had first received the message, his immediate concern had been keeping it hidden. After all, many members of his team hailed from Central City, and distraction from the mission was not something that could be afforded, but they had defeated Savage. The mission had been a success, and their role was to fix aberrations. Of course that is, _pas_ t aberrations. Outside of Savage, Rip Hunter had never considered fixing a future aberration, especially one which was so immediate to his teammates. The future constantly changing almost always guaranteed that a particular episode, actions in the present moment could make it so that a future dilemma disappeared before it reached crisis point. _It's dangerous to know too much about your own future._ Hadn't that been his mantra? But there was something immediately alarming about this particular call to action. If it was allowed to spiral, it would affect much more than Central City in 19 years time, so much more. Projections indicated…. He stared at the projections swallowing back the golf ball in his throat.

"Gideon, wake the team, tell them to meet me in here, and prepare to play back the message from 2036 Central City."

"Of course Captain."

* * *

The lights in the sleeping quarters turned on and Mick Rory was not happy. "How's a guy supposed to get any goddamn sleep in this tin can with the lights on?" Not that he'd been getting much sleep anyway.

"My apologies Mr. Rory." Gideon chimed. "But Captain Hunter wishes to see the team in the library. I was told to wake you."

"You can tell the Captain I'll shove a boot up his-"

"Mick, you know what's going on?" He was interrupted by a sleepy looking Ray Palmer. "It's 4AM."

"I can tell time Haircut." Mick sighed. "And no. This supercomputer isn't saying anything."

"Did you ask politely?" Ray raised his eyebrows. "Gideon,"

" Good morning Mr. Palmer, I was told that this information was something the captain wanted to share personally with you."

"See, that's all it takes."

"This _information_ couldn't wait until morning?" Mick growled. "And if you are anymore annoying I can still burn things."

Ray backed away slightly only to bump into Sara.

"So why are we all awake at 4 in the morning?"

"Good morning to you too Sara." Ray gave a shaky smile as he locked eyes with the sleep deprived former assassin.

"What did you light up this time?" Sara glared at Mick.

"I've been a perfect angel. My hands are clean."

Sara glanced sideways, nodding despite not looking anywhere near convinced. "Gideon told me that Rip's waiting for us in the library."

"Why does she tell you things?" Mick said.

"We ask, we don't grumble I told you." Ray followed Sara out of the(former? To Ray it was still hard to tell) arsonist's sleeping quarters.

* * *

"Grey?" Jax blinked against the harsh light as he sat up. "You _still_ workin'?" He looked in the direction of Professor Stein's desk only to see the professor was not there.

"This time, the light was not my request Jefferson." Stein spoke from the neighboring bed rubbing his eyes as he grabbed his glasses. "Gideon,"

"Good morning Professor, Mr. Jackson, the Captain requests your presence in the library."

"An aberration at 4 in the morning?" Jax frowned. "Isn't that a little...I dunno…?"

"Odd? Indeed." Stein nodded. "Of course, we don't know if that is what the Captain wishes to see us about."

"What else could it be?" Jax asked. "I don't smell any smoke or hear any alarms."

"That is true. It appears Mr. Rory's midnight cravings for microwaveable food is not the cause of this rendezvous."

"Then what…?"

"There is one way to find out." Stein said. "Shall we?"

Jax nodded feeling a sense of unease he couldn't quite place.

* * *

 _ **A/N: So, that's the opening. Thoughts?**_


	2. The Message

_**A/N: Hey all, here with chapter two. As usual, I do not own the Flash or Legends of Tomorrow, nothing recognizable is mine. They belong to DC and CW, credit goes to them for these fun and sometimes wacky characters. I'm just having a bit of fun putting my own spin. The only character I do own is my OC Kaia who we will meet later. And now without further ado, let the adventure continue.**_

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 **Chapter Two: The Message**

The team gathered in the library, and the first thing they saw was their captain looking for all intents and purposes troubled as he leaned against the table.

"Captain?" Sara cleared her throat. "What's up?"

Ray, who was next to Sara noticed the captain tense slightly before he turned around. "Good morning." the captain gave a tight smile. "I apologize for waking you all so abruptly, but I'm afraid this could not wait."

As he spoke the rest of the team filed in, Mick and Ray moving over to make room for Jax and Stein.

"Out with it man. You're making me nervous." Mick frowned as Jax bit back a chuckle.. "I don't like being nervous."

"Certainly…" Captain Hunter cleared his throat. "Are we all here then? Brilliant."

"Rip...what's got you so jittery?" Jax eyed the captain. "We deal with aberrations all the time. We're not beginners anymore."

"Quite right Mr. Jackson. You are of course quite right. You are a capable crew." Rip nodded. "But this er... aberration is slightly different."

"What's so different this time?" Ray said. "We go in, we fix and try not to die, isn't that how it works?"

"I'm afraid, it is not nearly that simple this time Dr. Palmer. This aberration is occurring in Central City in the year 2036."

"Future Central City?" Jax's eyes widened. "What happened to not knowing about our futures?"

"Gideon, pull up the message from Mr. Ramon."

"Pulling up the message." Gideon replied.

Jax and Stein exchanged a look as Gideon projected a hologram showing Cisco Ramon, older, more weary, but still clearly Cisco.

" _Captain Rip Hunter… captain of the Waverider right? Um...okay. Hopefully it's you. Oliver Queen and Barry told me this was the quickest way to get in touch with you. He'd contact you himself, except we've got a problem. A big problem. Barry's missing. Has been for a few weeks now, almost five. He was trying to reverse engineer a bioweapon that got one of our team really sick. We don't know why or how or even what sort of illness or bacteria we're even dealing with. There's no records of anything like it. But the point is, it's been too long. We've been searching and there's no sign of him. To make matters worse, someone got a hold of it, and we think they're enhancing it to target metahumans. And we're the only ones that had access."_ Cisco turned around, evidently noticing something and then back as his voice grew more hurried, more of a whisper. " _Just... please….you have to come help us Captain."_

The message cut out.

"A bioweapon?" Ray let out a hiss. "Someone released a virus?"

"Precisely Dr. Palmer." Rip nodded. "Gideon, pull up the news report from May 19th, and the projections."

"Yes Captain."

The team watched as a news reporter, Linda Park, provided details regarding CCPD's investigation into the Flash's disappearance.

"Twelve hours after this report," Rip said. "Miss Park was killed under mysterious circumstances in her home. Not to mention…" He trailed off, allowing Gideon's projections to tell the rest of the story.

The screen changed to show a newspaper clipping: PANDEMIC TARGETS METAHUMANS: BIOTERRORISM OR GENOCIDE? Another was layered on top of that, this one… FLASH STILL MISSING, CITY CRIME RATES SOAR AS CCPD SCRAMBLES. Another: HAS THE SCARLET SPEEDSTER ABANDONED THE CITY? QUESTIONS REMAIN UNANSWERED. And one final headline: US POPULATION DECREASES BY NEARLY 60% ACCORDING TO CENSUS REPORTS.

"So you're sayin' that the message from the nerd about Flash being MIA leads to genocide?" Mick broke the silence.

"The message not being _answered_ , yes."

"If we don't help, the mole gets away with it and thousands die." Sara deadpanned.

"It seems that way." Stein sighed. "So the aberration is where exactly?"

"The message was sent on April 25th 2036, so our destination…" Rip said. "Will be April 26th."

"Shouldn't we go back to before STAR got the bioweapon though, try to get it ourselves?" Jax asked.

Rip shook his head. "If we want to figure out what it is, Mr. Jackson, and who is behind this attack, we are better off doing so by asking those who have had access and are friendly rather than getting ourselves killed."

Jax nodded as his jaw set. _But we don't know who is._ _Someone betrayed them._

Stein placed a hand on Jax's shoulder hoping to offer some form of comfort as the team left the library and went to prepare for the time jump.

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 _ **A/N: Fun fact: there is a specific reason I chose the date I did for Cisco's message to the Legends, and it goes back to the very beginning of Flash. The newspaper headline in canon... of which part of this idea got its steam from is dated April 25th. So that's my little nod. Hope you enjoyed.**_


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